Mathias Augustyniak & Michael Amzalag

Mathias Augustyniak and Michael Amzalag together form the design and art direction partnership M/M. The pair are best known for their abstract and directional art direction in collaboration with Yohji Yamamoto , Nicolas Ghesquière, Jil Sander , Calvin Klein , Ricardo Tisci and Stella McCartney .

Their work has appeared in numerous titles including French Vogue, Purple Fashion, Man About Town and Les Inrockuptibles. Through their work in print, the pair have collaborated with noted fashion photographers and contemporary artists such as Pierre Huyghe, Philippe Parreno, Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin , Liam Gillick and Sarah Morris.

In addition, the pair are regularly called upon by some of the most creative musicians in the business to craft exquisite narratives and atmospheric context for their work. Collaborators include Kanye West, Madonna, Björk and Mew.

Augustyniak and Amzalag met as students at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Decoratifs in Paris in 1988. Amzalag quit school in 1990 and started working as art director at the music magazine Les Inrockuptibles. Augustyniak continued to study at the Royal College of Art in London, from which he graduated in 1991. M/M Paris was founded the following year.

Initially, they worked mainly for the music industry, designing record sleeves, but soon transitioned to fashion and art in addition to their work in music. Their first fashion assignment was to design the worldwide launch of Yohji Yamamoto’s Y’s range in 1993. The pair were next commissioned to design campaigns for Jil Sander and graphics for Martine Sitbon.

In 1995, they met photographers Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, which saw the start of a longstanding collaboration, starting with a campaign for Thierry Mugler in 1995. The pair then worked on projects for Yohji Yamamoto, Balenciaga, Givenchy, Calvin Klein and in the process established themselves as some of the finest art directors working in both the music and fashion industries.

In 2012, Michaël Amzalag and Mathias Augustyniak were named Chevaliers de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 2013, they won a Grammy Award for their work on Björk's album Biophilia.

The two-volume monograph M to M by M/M (Paris) was published in 2012 and 2020 to coincide with retrospectives at the Musée d'Orsay, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs and the Power Station of Art in the run-up to the 30th anniversary of M/M (Paris). In 2019, Michaël Amzalag and Mathias Augustyniak were inducted as members of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale) in the Japanese division, under the guidance of Katsumi Asaba. 2023 saw the publication of Letters from M/M (Paris), a definitive study of the typefaces produced by M/M written by typography expert Paul McNeil, with a foreword by Björk.

Their works are included in the collections of institutions such as the Centre Pompidou/Musée national d'Art moderne in Paris, the Design Museum in London, the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the Museum für Gestaltung in Zurich, the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Tate Modern in London and the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven.